Intel is encouraging partners to develop touch-enabled Ultrabooks

iPads may reign as champions now, but once touch-enabled Windows 8-powered Ultrabooks arrive, their days as undisputed leader will (in my opinion) be numbered. Intel is now strongly encouraging manufacturers to implement touch technology in upcoming Ultrabooks says Intel product manager Anand Kajshmanan.

Kajshmanan told PC World that Intel fundamentally believes in the concept and future of touch. Intel believe its the perfect time for touch screen notebooks, considering Windows 8 is slated to launch later this year. Kajshmanan expects notebooks with touch-enabled screens to drop in late-2012, and if not, 2013 at the latest.

He also expects to see a big increase in convertible touch screen notebooks such as Lenovo's Yoga which was shown at CES 2012, and something I was really interested in. Kajshmanan notes that enabling touch screen support on notebooks adds around $100 to the price, considering they'd already be at the ~$1000 price, this isn't too bad.